Fragile patriotism: Right-wing snowflakes, triggered by any criticism of America

Published

11 months ago

on

July 13, 2019

By

- Commentary

The term “patriotism” may be associated with strength, but at least in the United States, the people who crow the loudest about loving their country are often the most fragile when it comes to expressing that love in a healthy way.

This ongoing problem of fragile patriotism — a phenomenon particularly prevalent among Trump-flavored American conservatives — contributes to many of the most persistent injustices that plague our country.

As with love in interpersonal relationships, love of one’s country has to encompass the ability to accept criticism. If you love an individual uncritically, you forfeit your capacity for independent thought and leave yourself vulnerable to abusive behavior. Similarly, if you love your country uncritically, you ignore the sins of its past — and make it more likely that they will recur in the future.

This object lesson was demonstrated for me personally on the Fourth of July, when I published an opinion essay pointing out the overt racism and sexism that marred the events that led to the founding of our country, including the writing of the Declaration of Independence. I noted that Thomas Jefferson had initially considered condemning slavery but then refrained from doing so; that Abigail Adams asked her husband to remember the rights of women when creating his new country but was laughed off; and that the language of the Declaration both directly and indirectly demeaned Native Americans. The purpose of the piece was to simultaneously honor what was right about the Declaration of Independence, and the events that surrounded its creation, while acknowledging its shortcomings.

Famed civil liberties attorney Alan Dershowitz responding to a series of tweets promoting the article from Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., by attacking her but not me: “Is this woman out of her mind? The Declaration of Independence was written in 1776! Did she take history in grade school? I think now [sic].” (Dershowitz calls himself a liberal, by the way, but has lately become a prominent defender of President Trump.) Numerous commenters simply expressed outrage that anyone would assert the Declaration of Independence had a racist and sexist history, while others responded with personal attacks against me as a Jew and an autistic person.

ADVERTISEMENT

It is worth a brief response to the main points made against the article. Is it unfair to apply the standards of 2019 to 1776? Yes and no. Some contemporaries of the document’s drafters absolutely wanted slavery to be abolished and women’s rights to be recognized. Furthermore, even if that weren’t true, the human rights of black people, women and Native Americans were unquestionably being ignored. Is the fact that society was far more racist and sexist than it is now really an excuse?

The founding fathers knew that they were drafting a revolutionary text, not only in the immediate political sense but in terms of its long-term philosophical implications. They were bold enough to go beyond merely condemning King George III — which could have been the extent of what they did — and instead made broad proclamations about human rights. It is to their credit that they went as far as they did, and it’s an undeniable fact that they could have gone further but did not.

Another response that frequently popped up was that the Declaration of Independence actually sowed the seeds for the eventual elimination of injustices like slavery. While abolitionists frequently claimed this was the case in order to advance their cause — and other oppressed American groups have likewise insisted that the Declaration’s underlying spirit validates their social justice movements — that doesn’t mean the founding fathers saw that coming or intended it that way.

ADVERTISEMENT

Saying that they prophesied the end of slavery, for example, is a classic example of the logical fallacy known as “hindsight bias” or “creeping determinism.” Although some of the authors and signers of the Declaration of Independence were quietly opposed to slavery and hoped it would someday be abolished, none of them could have reasonably assumed that was inevitable. There were periods in American history when it seemed like slavery would spread into the Western territories and become a permanent fixture of our economy — that concern led to the creation of the Republican Party — or when it seemed like women would never obtain basic legal equality or the right to vote. Those things only look inevitable in the rear-view mirror. As for the continent-wide genocide against hundreds of Native American tribes and millions of people, I fail to perceive any historical happy ending.

The common theme that linked all the responses to my article, however, was the assumption that if you criticize the Declaration of Independence — even when saying that it had an “overwhelmingly positive impact on history,” is “one of the most eloquent and morally moving political documents ever penned” and that without it, “every social justice movement that has followed would never have come to pass” — you clearly hate America. The idea that on America’s birthday we can celebrate the nation’s greatness while being mindful of its flaws — or we can take a mixed, nuanced view of the founding fathers without despising the country they created — is totally incompatible with the doctrine of fragile patriotism.

“The impact of the prejudices, biases & contradictions codified by our founding fathers is still felt today. We continue to struggle as a nation to embrace our full history, one that includes family separation of black families at the auction block & today of migrants at camps,” Pressley wrote. “A country that has yet to realize it’s full promise for every person that calls it home & indeed makes it great, & yet it is a free country, one where I can resist, offer dissenting & critical opinion & challenge with bold activist leadership. Dissent is the ultimate patriotism, & as such I will continue to be a patriot. On this day, I am grateful for the freedoms afforded me in this country to do so. #resist #HappyFourthOfJuly.”

Pressley later added, “‘I love America more than any other country in this world, and exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.’ -James Baldwin But not only to criticize, to also celebrate & most of all to Work daily in coalition to preserve what is good & working, & to dismantle what is broken while mitigating the hurt caused by broken systems. The Work of progress & realizing a more equitable & just world never stops, but today we pause to reflect & fortify for the Work ahead.”

ADVERTISEMENT

There is a direct line between taking offense at any criticism of the founding fathers and taking offense when modern injustices are pointed out. Insisting on a version of American exceptionalism that claims our history is above reproach — or that its ugliest aspects were minor flaws or anomalies — leads all too easily to turning a blind eye to migrants held in cages, people of color being targeted for abuse by police, or poor people who can’t make ends meet because of systemic economic inequality.

But if we view the Declaration of Independence as the imperfect articulation of a perfect ideal — the ideal being that all human beings should have equal rights, equal opportunity and (as Franklin Roosevelt later observed) by implication a decent standard of living — we can honor the document’s larger purpose while recognizing its flaws. If the injustices embedded in the Declaration of Independence are viewed as invisible or unassailable, however, then by extension many other injustices become invisible as well.

Hence the fragile patriotism of so much of the right-wing Twitterverse.

Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick provoked similar controversy during the holiday when it was reported that he had persuaded Nike to abandon a sneaker line that included the Betsy Ross version of the American flag, a symbol embraced by some white supremacists. Kaepernick has of course criticized for kneeling during the national anthem as a silent protest against racial injustices by the police. Any form of protest against America’s symbols — even when wordless and entirely non-confrontational — is a challenge to fragile patriotism.

Gorka did not provide any examples of how Ocasio-Cortez “hates the founding principles” of this country, aside from his general references to her criticisms of economic inequalities and racial persecution. Once again, a direct connection is made between criticizing the political or social status quo and opposing the nation’s fundamental ideals — an assumption that depends on the perceived infallibility of the founding fathers.

This trend goes even further back then Kaepernick and Ocasio-Cortez, of course. When President Barack Obama apologized to other nations that had been victimized by America’s foreign policy in the past, the Heritage Foundation claimed that he had “humiliated” the United States. Civil rights activists in the 1950s and 1960s were routinely accused of being Communists, an accusation that was even levied against Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (who was hated by the conservatives of his day until his martyrdom made him unassailable). From those decades onward, almost any protesters have been told that if they don’t love America, they should leave it.

It’s fair to add that leftists can also be guilty of lacking balance in their perspective. I agree with the criticism of historians like Howard Zinn who find “much to condemn in American history, little or nothing to praise” (that’s from the New York Times, one of Trump’s supposed “enemies of the people”). An impartial look at America’s history requires a balancing of the positive and the negative, which is never easy. It is important to remember that America has made progress toward fixing original sins like allowing sexism, racism and poverty — not as much as needs to be done to be a fully just society, but more than many other countries have even attempted.

ADVERTISEMENT

It is time to start calling out the fragile patriots for being what they are. If they can get away with promoting the idea that criticizing America’s founding fathers or other revered historical figures is the same thing as hating America, it becomes that much easier to gloss over the injustices that exist today. Their mentality is meant to silence dissent by letting dissenters know they will be subjected to virulent straw-man attacks whenever they speak out. Even worse, it corrupts Americanism from the inside, turning it from a noble aspiration into an angry, defensive, emotionally brittle cult.

We are better than that. At least, I think so.

Enjoy good journalism?

… then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has cut advertising rates in half, and we need your help. Like you, we here at Raw Story believe in the power of progressive journalism. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and legal efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. And unlike other news outlets, we’ve decided to make our original content free. But we need your support to do what we do.

Raw Story is independent. Unhinged from corporate overlords, we fight to ensure no one is forgotten.

Value Raw Story?

… then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has cut advertising rates in half, and we need your help. Like you, we believe in the power of progressive journalism — and we’re investing in investigative reporting as other publications give it the ax. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. We need your support to do what we do.

The ongoing feud between the black woman leading Washington, DC and the white man inside the White House was the focus of an in-depth Washington Postreport published Saturday evening.

"The response has been emphatic. Since Trump’s personal attack on May 30, Bowser has fought back fiercely against the president’s bullying, taunting him with tweets and criticisms of her own. On Friday, she rebuked him with a defiant display of street art in which she sought to draw a clear contrast with Trump’s calls for 'law and order' by demonstrating active support for peaceful protesters of the Black Lives Matter movement," the newspaper reported.